KMS Hayloft

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Thu Jul 29, 2021 1:11 am


No. Linda, the original owner of KMS, was a member here. Her goal was to produce the best hay and pellets possible for guinea pigs, and she did quite a lot of research on the best ingredients for pellets. She posted a lot about their farm and their priorities for hay and pellets. They had fantastic customer service. The pellets always shipped with information on the date they were milled, and several people joked that it looked like they just mowed the hay, took it directly to where the pellets were made, and then shipped them. They were by far the freshest available.

But Linda sold the company a few years ago when she became ill, and the new owners have never lived up to the quality of service she offered. Sadly, she passed away a year or so ago. The one bright side to that may be that she's not having to watch the decline of the company she established and worked so hard to make successful.

daj

Post   » Thu Jul 29, 2021 10:21 am


Everything I have seen from them recently is automated, no personal replies, even on their FB page. They are merely reposting positive feedback they've received in the past. Definite weirdness going on.

I wonder how hard it is to make one's own pellets? Does anyone have info on this? From what I've seen pelletizing machines are expensive, but maybe there are other solutions? I wonder if a dehydrator would be of use? Or, is it best to just stick with store-bought pellets?

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Thu Jul 29, 2021 12:07 pm


Guinea pigs don't necessarily NEED pellets. What they need is hay and additional vitamins and minerals. Those latter two are the hard parts -- figuring out exactly what they need and how much.

Making pellets is what my mother would have called "too much sugar for a dime." Totally not worth the effort.

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Thu Jul 29, 2021 2:55 pm


With her pellets, there was a premix that is commonly available to mills that was added. My guess, specifically for guinea pigs since vitamin C is required. In addition, she specified the combination of other ingredients. This had to work with the pelleting process.

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Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Thu Jul 29, 2021 9:00 pm


It was not only the freshness and quality ingredients of the pellets that made it a top choice for me and many others, but also the fact that KMS (Kleenmama at the time---I still call it that) was one of the first US pellet manufacturers to eliminate calcium carbonate from the list of ingredients. At the time, many of us here were battling bladder stones in our guinea pigs despite doing all the "right things" where diet was concerned, and we started to suspect a correlation between bladder stones in cavies (which are largely calcium carbonate in composition) and the use of calcium carbonate/limestone as the source of calcium in nearly all brand-name pellets---Oxbow being the most popular back then. Linda worked very hard to not only keep the calcium content of her pellets lower than any other commercial pellets on the market, but she also avoided that particular ingredient.

daj

Post   » Thu Jul 29, 2021 9:58 pm


I guess there's no telling what's up with KMS. They seem to have gone off the rails. The pellets are sold out, they don't answer the phone, and they give only automated replies. Weren't they being proactive in the past, sending out emails from the owner when there was a possibility of shortages? What happened to that?

If trying to make my own pellets is a no go, I suppose I will stick with Oxbow Garden Select, unless someone has another suggestion. What about the Sherwood timothy based pellets? Anyone have knowledge of them? They seem to be considerably more expensive than the Oxbow GS. But then, the packaging says they're 'concentrated so you can feed less pellets. Not sure why that would be desirable, since it makes for less munching.

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Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Thu Jul 29, 2021 10:13 pm


Sherwood pellets and so-called supplements are not only highly over-priced but based on junk "science." Before they came out with timothy pellets, they tried to make the claim that their alfalfa-based pellets were perfectly fine and couldn't possibly cause sludge or bladder stones in guinea pigs. If that's the case, why develop timothy pellets? There's a thread about them on GL somewhere. Strong NO vote here.

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Fri Jul 30, 2021 12:25 am


No on Sherwood from me as well.

There IS some telling on what's up with KMS. The new owners have just screwed it up. The emails about shortages came when Linda was still running the company.

daj

Post   » Fri Jul 30, 2021 4:19 pm


I just came from getting hay (3 wire orchard grass, $32, used to be $25). A woman there said they had to wait a long time, as it had to be grown for them. I got 2 bales to bag and store. It keeps about a year, right?

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Fri Jul 30, 2021 5:16 pm


Hay will retain 95% of its nutritional value up to two years after harvest if kept in dry conditions.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Fri Jul 30, 2021 9:35 pm


Dry conditions is the key. You don't want any moisture at all because humidity will encourage the growth of mold. I had put a bale of hay in a nice outbuilding and I could tell it got moldy. So be very careful about your storage area.

daj

Post   » Fri Jul 30, 2021 10:25 pm


Mine will be bagged and indoors. I didn't hoard a single thing through the pandemic, but the thought of no hay is scary enough to make me start. If the hay suffers, then the pellets will too. Esp. because it probably won't be just hay that takes a hit, but the other ingredients will too. Heat, drought, extreme weather, fires... the future looks pretty rough.

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